20 stolen e-scooters recovered, Central Valley man arrested

Timothy McMahon was arrested in San Joaquin County and accused of stealing 20 electric scooters from the Bay Area.

Photo: Courtesy San Joaquin Sheriff

A French Camp man stole 20 electric scooters and brought them back to his Central Valley trailer, where he damaged, dismantled and altered the equipment, according to San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies arrested Timothy McMahon, 38, on Friday and booked him into San Joaquin County Jail on multiple counts of possession of stolen property.

On Thursday, an employee from Gruv scooters reported the theft of several of the micromobility company’s scooters to Oakland police. On Friday, the employee traced the scooters’ GPS locators to French Camp in San Joaquin County and contacted the sheriff’s office.

Deputies responded to an address on Wayne Court and found McMahon, who was on searchable probation. Inside the trailer, police found 20 electric scooters from different parts of the Bay Area from various companies, including Gruv, Lyft, Lime and Bird, the sheriff’s office said.

All of the scooters were dismantled to some degree, the sheriff’s office said, and some of the GPS locators had been removed and destroyed. Deputies found the Gruv scooters in the stash, the department said.

Matthias Gafni joined The San Francisco Chronicle as an enterprise reporter in February 2019. He investigates stories in the East Bay and beyond. For almost two decades, Gafni worked for the Bay Area News Group – San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times and Vallejo Times-Herald -- covering corruption, child sexual abuse, criminal justice, aviation and more. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and graduated from UC Davis. He lives with his wife and three kids in the East Bay.